Paul Fitch

The Universal Family of God and How I Came to Know this Universality

July 26 2015
Text: Ephesians 3: 14-21

Good morning.  I come before you today desirous of sharing, and putting together, pieces of my life and seeking illumination of it in the light of faith. 

Geographically, I feel that my life is a triangle centered upon three points (from each of them that I have gone out).  These are Washington, DC, where I did most of my growing up and have raised my own family, Washington state, where I did much growing and learning of life, and in El Salvador where I lived for six years as I joined in walking with a People seeking peace and justice, where I yet often visit.

I was in Guatemala and El Salvador at the end of March and beginning of April.  I came back, and then just over two weeks ago went out to the Northwest, and am here once again in Washington, DC.  This triangle is as a sacred circle that leads me ever deeper into the labyrinth of life.

I was struck by the words of the letter of Paul to the Ephesians: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name”.  As I have looked into the original language of this text and its interpretations, I see that it is referring to a much broader concept of family.  The Hebrew concept of “patria”, here translated as family, refers to descendants of a common lineage, people, or clan and is never used in the bible to refer to a biological family.  In this passage Paul is claiming God Creator as the resounding source of being of all people.  And I believe that “every family in heaven and on earth” refers to the continuity and a deepening of the presence of God’s Kingdom within history, and indeed a transformation of history back to God’s purposes.

In fact, in the Latin American Bible, which is the main one I used in El Salvador, the word is the same as the Greek, “patria,” which in Spanish means country, or homeland.  Within certain progressive circles in Latin America there exists the concept of “patria grande,” which means, “the big county.”  This refers to a much larger sense of belonging, of being, than mere national boundaries.  This is the concept expressed on this t-shirt I am wearing that says, “Mi Patria es America,” which means, “My Country is America.”  And it is what I believe, that national boundaries serve to divide people who may have much more in common than differences.  They serve to maintain inequalities and to perpetuate systems of the haves and the have-nots.  The God of history is the God of Life and God is love and so God’s design is obviously different from our dominant social reality.

[I want to interject here the circumstance of my nephew, Jose Ramon, who, in recent weeks with great sacrifice, came from El Salvador to this country.  He is 18 years-old and could not continue in his university studies due to being harassed and threatened by gang members various times on the bus as he went to his classes.  He despaired of living in fear with cut off from opportunities in his own land and chose to come to the United States.  Upon crossing into the US he was picked up by immigration and is now being held in a privately run prison near San Antonio Texas.  His crime is that of not being born in this land.  The cause of his country falling into an ever-descending spiral of violence has a lot to do with the very violent intervention of the US in his country and the very unequal relationship between the two countries.]

I am also struck by the circumstances of Paul as he wrote this epistle.  (Some say that is was not Paul who wrote this, since it doesn’t address a specific group or place and does not share specific occurrences.  From what I understand, I more buy the theory that it is a more generic letter expressing beliefs that was copied and sent to more than one community).  He wrote from prison (or possibly from house arrest) at about age 57 (my age) with a passion and conviction equal to that of a Mahatma Gandhi, a Martin Luther King, Jr., or an Oscar Romero.  He believed so firmly in the coming of a world dominated by the Love of Christ that the authorities of that day executed him a few short years later, just as has occurred with present day martyrs.  But their love, their presence, their convictions remain, undiminished, to guide us on.

And we have Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, “Laudato Si” (be praised) that he addresses to “every living person on this planet.”  Its subject line is, “On Care for our Common Home.”  This is a concept that necessarily transcends national boundaries.  It is also of importance to note that our family within creation goes on to be much larger than that merely of humanity.  He then later goes on to say that all the major religions of the world will have a lot to do with the healing of humanity.  As our Ann Barnet expresses in her autobiographical book, our present and our future into God’s kingdom have a lot to do with crossing and transcending borders, and not just physical ones.

I wish to share some formative snippets of my life that indicate some of how I came to have a broader concept of the family I belong to and of borders on this earth.  I illustrate them with a few maps and photographs.  I do this by looking at 10-year intervals, starting with 1959, when I was one-year old.

1959: My first camping trip with my family.  I attribute my continued love of nature and the out-of-doors in part to these experiences with family.

1959: The overthrow of the US-supported Batista dictatorship in Cuba by the Cuban people.  The process that unfolded there was an example of a country radically rearranging its priorities to be at the service of the people themselves instead of at the service of the wealthy, of foreign companies, and of imperial powers such as the United States.  But this led to further interventions in several countries I am now familiar with – Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – that have effectively destroyed their hopes to prosper as sovereign nations at the service of their own peoples.  My current engagement with Central America stems in part from the conviction that just change there, and between our lands, is yet possible and always necessary.

1969: We seven members of the Fitch family, aged 7 through 41, set out to travel from Nigeria, where we had lived for two years, to Morocco by air, then to Spain by boat, to France in a rented car, and then to India in a Volkswagen bus (passing through such countries as the Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), then by air hops to Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, then California and once again by land to Chicago and, eventually, back to Washington, DC.  My parents believed not only in adventure, but also that, in knowing other places and other peoples in this world, especially those some would consider to be our enemies, greater possibilities would exist in our lives and peace in this world would be more possible.

1979: I was part of a group of 23 students and one famous mountain-climber professor from the Evergreen State College attempting to be the first group to climb Mount Rainier that year.  It was a ten-day winter expedition into a world of snow, ice, rock, and wind.  On the seventh day extreme conditions forced us to abandon our summit attempt and, on the eighth day, one rope team of four was overcome by a snow avalanche.  By the time the group concluded the rescue attempt, Janie, a fellow student, and Willi, our professor, were dead.  Because of the continued blizzard and near hurricane conditions, we had to wait two more days before going down, but in a stone hut that was a place of safety.  Since I was part of one of the last rope teams I did not directly witness the accident scene.

I had not thought very much about this in recent years until I came across, shortly after my mother’s death a few months ago, the accident report and evaluation done at the request of the College in 1979.  I read it over and over again, remembering each person and each day on the mountain.  I have felt, by and large, that this was a life-affirming experience, but I realized that not all issues around it were resolved for me and for others.  I then became motivated to reach out to some of the other members of this expedition and was able get together with two of them (Mary Ellen and Scottie) in Portland and two others (Jeff and Sheri) in Olympia, Washington on a trip I just made out to the Northwest, that I made to attend a niece’s wedding.  I did not realize that this remained a traumatic experience for many,

And it was good for us to be able to talk about it after all these years.  I also went backpacking for three days at Mount Rainier with Chris, a friend in that same studies’ program, who was not on the climb but nonetheless was affected by it.  I enjoyed being in the presence of that almost incomprehensible beauty.  I also enjoyed camping with my Dad (87 years-old) for three days, I think for the first time in thirty years.  I was up by dawn each day of that week so as to not miss anything.

1979: About six weeks after the mountain, I fell from a tree I had climbed to see the view and broke my leg.  In an isolated, trailless area of campus I was obligated to do a backwards crab crawl with a broken femur until I finally reached a road about 24 hours after the accident.

October 1989: Now living and working in El Salvador, as a result of faith-based work with Central American refugees in the United States, I meet and marry the lovely Videlbina Flores.  I see this as the result of following my heart, in terms of call and mission which, in turn, brought me into relationship with this young woman committed to her people with a compassionate heart.  Four years later our first son, Javier, is born in El Salvador.

November 1989: This same compassion led us to attempt to assist an emergency clinic to save lives of the wounded but which we ceased after a soldier gave the order for me to be executed.  A day later Videlbina and I, together with a young Salvadoran man, were running an emergency refugee center in a school that had been turned over us where we received over 200 people fleeing from the government’s aerial bombing of its own people.  The National Guard then came along and Videlbina and I, along with several other emergency aid workers, were taken to two jails where people were being interrogated and tortured.  Videlbina continues to suffer as a result of the torture she witnessed and the extreme mistreatment she received.  I always remember the date each year, and it informs my convictions to seek greater humanity in this life, but it is the day I might have been killed that I feel deeper down.  Videlbina is to be credited for helping to create an out for that situation.

1999: Now, having entered into a more settled life back in Washington, DC, Oliver is born and my family is complete.

2009: The call back to El Salvador becomes stronger and I go to observe the presidential elections there.  My group manages to get in the middle of some suspect situations and possibly help prevent hundreds of fraudulent votes.  The first president ever both elected and allowed to assume the presidency who was not in representation of the wealthy nor of the military wins, and people spend the night dancing in the streets.  I am now determined to return to El Salvador, and other places in Central America on an annual basis, and to continue to discover the place that land has in my life.

I wish to continue to be a seeker and a supporter of peace and justice, and to be more compassionately engaged in my life.  I want to celebrate Life (and not just my own life), to be up at dawn to greet each new day, to enjoy my two countries and the many families to which I belong, and to find peace.

I conclude with reading the remainder of today’s scripture from Ephesians, which is a prayer and a doxology:

3:16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,
3:17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
3:18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,3:19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
3:20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,
3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.